Her catering business started with a little Miracle
Shantae Braxton, right, shows her daughter Miracle how to layer baked mac and cheese. Photo by Azhae’la Hanson
By Azhae’la Hanson, Reporter
While cooking a meal, Shantae Braxton takes breaks to chase her daughter around their kitchen and answer any questions her 4-year-old might have about the food and cooking.
“My sweet baby, I love you,” Braxton said to her daughter. “She’s so sweet. I could never be mad at her. I see myself in her,” she said. “I want to give her the life we can both be proud of.”
And Braxton, 21, is doing that. She runs a full-time catering business and recently launched her website, Itsgoodfoodbybraxton.com, to draw more customers.
The Henry High School grad did it to forge her own path and provide a good life for her daughter, Miracle.
It is a name inspired by her surprise birth following a basketball game her mother played when she was 17.
Braxton was in a high-stakes game against neighborhood rival North High. Throughout the game, she felt stomach pains unlike any she’d had. Afterward, her family took her to a hospital, and in an elevator, she gave birth to a full-term baby girl.
“I didn’t speak,” Braxton said. “I had no idea I was pregnant.”
Braxton said she didn’t know she was pregnant because her stomach wasn’t showing a growing baby. Doctors call this a cryptic pregnancy, and it happens, according to the National Institute of Health, in one out of 2,500 women.
“I always thought I was a thicker girl,” she said. “I didn't know.”
She recalled sitting in the hospital bed, unable to speak. She was in shock. Her late father, Shuan Stafford, helped her decide on the name. What happened to Braxton was nothing short of a miracle.
“It fit perfectly,” she said.
Braxton sits with Miracle and talks about her late father, Shuan Stafford, who named Miracle. Braxton says he inspired her love for cooking. Photo by Azhae’la Hanson
Braxton remembers the swirl of thoughts in her head while in the hospital. She had prepared for her future so meticulously. That night, she scored 16 points, and a college coach came to watch her play.
Although Braxton’s life abruptly changed direction, she said she wasn’t derailed from her goals. She was motivated to succeed. She leaned on her many talents to pivot as she navigated motherhood.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen,” she recalled. “But every day until that point, I thought about how I could get up and do something for my future, and now that I was holding my Miracle, I immediately started to think about that for the both of us.”
She was a leader in high school, and she wore many hats. She was an honor roll student and a standout basketball player. After practice, she would head to her job, an hour's bus ride from her home, and work until 1 a.m.
“The stuff I had to go through to find ways to eat food sometimes was exhausting,” Braxton said. “But I had to do it. I was very focused. I had a routine and I would do anything I could to get ahead or help out. I didn’t care what it was.”
Braxton has always had a strong work ethic that stems from being motivated to change the circumstances around her. She was taught to hustle both in school and at work. She had to grow up faster than most.
This work ethic set her on a path to capitalize on what she was good at cooking. Her origins in cooking trace back to her father, who she says made every meal beautiful.
“It could have been a can of beans,” Braxton said. “He would make it look amazing. I wanted to do that, too.”
She picked up a side hustle of cooking food to make ends meet with her family and made a chicken alfredo for her classmates, which quickly generated a buzz because of how good it was.
“I had so many orders at one time that my truck was full,” Braxton said. “I was doing pickups and deliveries while I still had homework to do.”
After Miracle was born, she found it more difficult to maintain a typical 9-5 job. She stopped trying to make it work and continued cooking full-time. Her catering clientele expanded from classmates and family to neighbors and strangers, confirming to Braxton that she had a gift that people loved. Something else was born with that realization: a dream to start her own restaurant.
Today, Braxton makes meals to order with a rotating weekly menu that customers can choose from for the week. She says she can make just about anything and features a chicken alfredo that was in demand during her high school days.
Her mind is full of new ideas and spins on traditional home-cooked meals, and she stands at the stove for hours at a time to perfect old classics like cornbread, chicken, and collard greens. She says she constantly adapts to the way food speaks to people and takes on the challenge of making sure she can use her culinary skills to build a life for the two of them.